


Kiss and Tell

by runsinthefamily



Series: Nineteen [3]
Category: Dragon Age
Genre: F/M, First Kisses, Fluff, UST, isabela makes her move, the gang hangs out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-15
Updated: 2011-09-15
Packaged: 2017-10-23 18:44:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/253686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runsinthefamily/pseuds/runsinthefamily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The gang shares their first kiss stories.  Merrill's is the raciest!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kiss and Tell

It was late. Practically-morning late and Corff had begun to make loud hurmph noises and glare at them, so they'd moved up to Varric's room. Even Fenris had come along, although it had taken some whining on Priana's part and a judicious application of Isabela's breasts against his arm. Now they all sat around Varric's table, playing Thedas's laziest game of Wicked Grace and snickering.

"You should have invited that Prince again," said Isabela, stretching like a cat. Fenris's eyes lingered on her flexing torso. "He's so yummy."

"He's so uptight you mean," said Priana. "Anyway, he doesn't play cards." She examined her hand again and then tossed in on the table with a sigh. "Neither do I, it seems. Maker, I have the worst luck."

Merrill turned her hand to show Varric. "I think this is good, but I can't remember if the cards with the ladies on them are the ones you keep, or the ones you give away."

"Well," said Varric. "I fold."

"Enough cards," said Priana. "Let's do something else."

"Oooh," said Isabela. "Like what, sweet thing?"

"Word games? Tell stories?"

Varric smirked, opened his mouth, and was immediately drowned out by Priana, Isabela and Anders chiming in, "No shit, there I was!"

Aveline snorted, Merrill giggled wildly and even Fenris cracked a smile.

"Alright, alright," said Varric goodnaturedly.

"Anyway, I meant true stories," said Priana. "Sometimes I feel like I've known you forever, but I really don't know that much. Nothing too personal!" she amended quickly, seeing Fenris's brow cloud, "just - little things. Fun things."

"Marigolds are my favorite flower," said Aveline.

"I like cats," said Anders.

"I like halla," said Merrill. "They're so soft. Except their horns, of course, especially when you get one right in the backside."

"I like you, Daisy," said Varric, chucking her under the chin.

"I like peace and quiet," said Fenris, folding his arms.

"No, you don't," said Priana. "You follow _me_ around." That won her another smile, this one wry and tilted.

"Boring!" Isabela pronounced. "How about Firsts?"

"Classy as always, Rivaini," said Varric.

"So, we keep it clean and sweet, for the innocents among us," said Isabela, smirking at Priana.

Priana coloured a bit at that. "I'm not _twelve_ , Isabela," she said.

"My first kiss," said Isabela, "was a boy from down the street. He and his friends were all scared of my mother and he only kissed me because I dared him to. He had the loveliest hair, all black and glossy. I was nine." She grinned across the table at Varric. "Your turn."

He rolled his eyes and huffed a laugh. "My first kiss was Hildur Orenfell. We were fourteen, it was at a Merchant's Guild ball, her lips were chapped and afterward I found out that her brother had told her to do it because he wanted a marriage contract between our houses. Not very romantic. She had nice eyes though." He pointed at Anders. "What about you?"

"Andraste's Ass," said Anders. "The first. Huh. Let me think."

"Do you have so little regard for your past loves?" asked Fenris.

" _Loves_ isn't exactly the word I would have chosen," said Anders with a hint of rueful nostalgia. "In the Tower, it was more like we were each other's idle pasttimes. But the first ... must have been, um." Suddenly he blushed and glanced at Priana. "It was Solona."

"What?" said Isabela. She leaned forward, her eyes narrowing. "You don't mean -"

"Yep," said Anders. "The Hero of Ferelden slipped me the tongue at age thirteen."

"Sweet Maker's balls," said Isabela, smacking the table. "I ran into her in Denerim, a few months after Ostagar. Her and that walking muscle, Maric's bastard what refused the throne. She was a _dish_."

"Wait, wait," said Priana. "You snogged my _cousin_?"

Varric sat up straight. "Hawke, are you telling me that you are related to the actual Hero of actual Ferelden?"

"My mum's an Amell," she said. "I've never met Solona. She was taken away when she was four or five, I think. My parents were already married and far away from the Marches by then."

"Was she a good kisser?" Merrill asked, bright-eyed.

"No," said Anders, smiling. "It was her first kiss, too. We slobbered on one another for a while in the stacks - by the Primal texts, I think - and then a Templar came along and we scurried off in different directions. It never turned into anything. The next week I saw her snogging some older elf girl by the storerooms."

"Sweet Solona," sighed Isabela.

"She had beautiful hair," said Anders. "Like a banked flame."

Priana put a hand halfway to her own auburn head and then yanked it down again.

"What about you, Broody?" asked Anders, not without malice. "Stolen kisses in the garden? Boys or girls?"

"I do not remember," said Fenris forbiddingly.

"What? You don't remember your first kiss?" Isabela cocked an eyebrow at him.

He said nothing, only tipped up his nearly-empty wine bottle and drank.

"Merrill!" said Priana brightly. "Your turn!"

"Were you hit on the head, Fenris?" asked Merrill. "Is that why you can't remember?"

"I do not wish to speak of it further," said Fenris, with a hint of a growl in his voice. Isabela eyed him speculatively.

"Just tell us about your kiss, Daisy," said Varric.

"Oh, alright," said Merrill. "His name was Pol. He was from Denerim originally but he ran away after the shems, er, after he got into trouble. He wasn't much like the other city elves I'd met. He was strong and proud and when we came upon him, he'd already made a small camp and had shot a deer and was attempting to tan the hide. Not very well, but he was trying. So Marethari said that he should be allowed to join the clan. Some of the others weren't very happy about it, but he was very humble about the whole thing, didn't mind sitting with the children to learn the lore, or helping with the halla, or any of it. In the end, we were all glad to have him.

"He, um ..." Merrill blushed a little. "He was one of the few who didn't look at me and see me as just Marethari's First. We were having a feast for Maren and Tolven's wedding and he kissed me behind an aravel. I was, let's see, seventeen? It was lovely. He smelled of smoke and wine. I let him touch my breasts."

"Good for you, kitten," said Isabela approvingly.

Hawke nudged Merrill a little with her elbow. "Hot stuff!" she teased.

Merrill laughed. "That's not all we did! But nevermind that, we're talking about kissing. Aveline, what about you?"

"Not much to tell," said Aveline. "I was fourteen. Wesley was a year older, in training with my father, learning the greatsword. I knocked him down, then he knocked me down, then he kissed me in the armory."

"You married the first man you ever kissed?" asked Isabela. "That's just sad."

"I think it's sweet," said Merrill dreamily.

"I never wanted to kiss anyone else," said Aveline. "I'm sure that hard for _you_ to grasp, whore."

"Oh, I always grasp at har -"

"You're up, Hawke," said Varric loudly.

"Right," said Priana, glancing at Anders. Maybe she should lie? No, she was rubbish at it, and anyway, why should she be embarrassed? "Well, um, I was fifteen. It was in a barn. Uh. It was with a Templar."

"What?" Merrill squealed.

Varric barked out a short laugh, Aveline smiled, Fenris raised an eyebrow, Isabela clapped her hands, and Anders ...

Anders was smiling that wry, rueful grin again.

"How did this come about?" asked Varric, steepling his fingers. "Was he deadly handsome? Were you torn between loyalty to your family and the power of young love?"

"Shut up, Varric," said Priana. "He was - he was new. New to Falcor's Creek, and I'd noticed him watching Bethany one day when we were in town for shopping. So I went over, to distract him."

"I'll bet!" said Isabela.

"Not like that! It was something I just did, put myself in between people and Bethany, draw their attention, you know. So I went over and said hello, like any friendly person in a small town would to someone new, and he turned out to be ... sort of nice. And then at the Spring Festival he came over to me and said hello and I went on talking to him because I knew that if they like you, Templars sometimes look the other way. That's how Da got out of the Gallows."

Anders had his elbows on the table now, his amber eyes fixed on her.

"So, anyway, it got so that I would say hello every time we were in town, and then at Harvest, the Revered Mother sent out the Templars to help bring in the crops. She did it every year, and usually we got Ser Farvel who I think knew about Da and just didn't mind. But that year we got Ser Quinn. Mother kept Bethany inside and I glued myself to his side. I never really thought about what it must have seemed like from his point of view until he kissed me."

She propped her head on her hand. "He'd left his armor off, obviously. Without it, he was just ... this boy, not too much older than me. He stepped up to me with this look on his face, all wide eyed and serious and I thought for sure he'd figured it out about Bethany and was about to tell me that he was turning us in. And then he took hold of my arms and bent his head and kissed me. I just ... stood there. Maker, talk about surprised."

"But did you like it?" asked Isabela. "Did he kiss well? Did he bend you over a manger and - "

"No!" Priana bit her lip to keep from laughing. "He just - it was fine. It was nice. He'd obviously done it before." She coloured a little, remembering the smell of hay and the sweaty dampness of Quinn's shirt and the wet touch of his tongue on hers. "Then Carver ran in, shouting, and hit him with a shovel."

Varric lifted his mug. "The razor-sharp instincts of a younger brother," he toasted.

"He was such a brat," said Priana. Her eyes stung a little, but she'd gotten to the point where she could remember Carver without wanting to break down and sob. "Da was furious," she said. "With me, and with himself. We finished the harvest and then we left."

"Why?" asked Isabela. "Did he not want you canoodling with a Templar? _You_ weren't a mage."

"No, but it was attention on our family. Not just from Quinn, but from his superiors, from the Reverend Mother. It was too risky and not just for Bethany or Da. How could I have ever trusted him? If I'd ever broken things off and he'd taken it badly ..."

"Templars are dangerous," said Anders.

"I felt terrible," said Priana. "We told everyone that Da's father had died and he'd inherited a business in Highever. Quinn came to say goodbye." She bit her lip. "So I kissed him again."

Isabela burst out laughing.

"Smell the flowers while you can," said Varric. "Or the Templars, as the case may be." He yawned, prodigiously. "Alright, everyone out. I'm about to start propping my eyelids up with sticks here. No, Daisy, you're bedding down here tonight, let me get the couch set up for you."

Aveline was the first to go. Isabela followed Fenris out, winking at Priana, and Priana lingered a bit to let them get on ahead. Anders stayed as well, leaning on the back of his chair.

"I was worried you might think me a bit of a tart, kissing Templars and all," she said.

"Pff," he waved a hand. "Don't feel too badly. I've snogged a Templar or two in my time. Not always in the service of escaping, either."

"I only ever kissed one." She poked him in the side.

"So who are you kissing these days?" he asked.

"Uhh," she said intelligently.

"Will you two get out of here?" Varric said. "I'm falling over, I'm so tired."

"Right," said Priana and escaped out the door.

She stopped short in the hallway and Anders almost ran into her from behind. There, in the corner, white hair and a flash of gold jewelry. Isabela's distinctive, low laugh was cut off abruptly.

Priana seized Anders's hand and dragged him down the stairs. "Shhh!" she remonstrated when he opened his mouth to protest and hauled him ruthlessly out into the cool pre-dawn before she gave in to her giggles.

"I guess he'll have something to remember now," said Anders and set her off harder.

She leaned against the wall and wiped tears out of her eyes. "I'm not kissing anyone," she said. "These days."

"Hmmmn," he said. "That's a pity." He seemed about to say something else, then checked himself, shook his head and sighed.

"Is it?" she asked softly.

"Yes." He tucked a lock of her red hair behind her ear. "It is." He smiled at her, a bit sadly, and walked away.


End file.
